Roundabouts are safety circles that saturate load of traffic and prevent chances of collisions on intersecting roads. A traditional crossover is more prone to accidents because blunt intersections break the motion of traffic and cause congestion, therefore likelihood of right-angle, left-turn, and head-on collisions increases.
Advantage of roundabouts
Roundabouts or rotaries though are confusing but come with certain benefits. Compared to the typical crossroads, circular formation offers more controlled environment. It requires lower speed limit, which is usually 20 km/h in urban and 35 km/h in rural areas. The vehicles are always running in parallel direction even though they are arriving from different directions, which eliminates chances of head-on collisions. You will find a whole set of traffic signs to take you around, and instruct you when to change lanes and when to take a U-turn. Multi-lane traffic circles allow simultaneous flow of pedestrians, cyclists, small and large vehicles without adding feasibility for contradiction.
Types of roundabouts
Single lane roundabouts, as the name implies, have one lane coming from all four directions which meet to form a wider road in the circle. It doesn’t offer separate paths for different types of vehicles. Multi-lane roundabouts have separate lanes for each category traverse. They are more puzzling and complex, generally if you have good sense of direction it shouldn’t be a problem. For instance, you should be in left lane if you’re about to take left turn.
The capacity of a roundabout varies, based on the number of entry and circulating lanes, and on entry angle and lane width. As with other types of junctions, operational performance depends heavily on the flow volumes from various approaches. A single-lane roundabout can handle approximately 20,000-26,000 vehicles per day, while a two-lane design supports 40,000 to 50,000.
Navigating roundabouts
– When you approach a roundabout take longer distance to slow down, don’t apply full brakes near it.
– Remember that vehicles already in circle have the right to go first, so wait for a broad gap and don’t thrust yourself in the crowd. Moreover, yield to bicycles, motorbikes and cars if they are too close.
– Don’t stop the car amid roundabout unless there’s an emergency which also emphasizes you to keep eyes on all the mirrors.
– It is a good practice to insert yourself right behind large vehicles as they cover a lot of space giving you safe opportunity to get in and out.
– Multi-lane rotaries require more alertness, but don’t worry; as long as you are driving in your lane you will pass smoothly, changing lanes is not advisable.
– You must know where are you heading so to grab the right lane. If you have switched to a wrong lane, keep traversing around the circle, try to find safe distance from the car behind and in front of you and carefully switch the lane, but watch out for incoming vehicles. Do it on the nodes where no road is intersecting with the roundabout. I will strictly advise not to change lanes if you do have good driving experience, and avoid it either way by selecting correct lane at the first place.
Summary
Roundabouts save fuel you burn idling for traffic to clear, recovers your time and also ensure smooth flow of traffic by directing vehicles in the same direction. Road incidents get reduced as speed limits are kept low. All vehicles get equal opportunities to pass, there is no need to rush through. The difficulty arises only when you are entering the circle or changing lanes. By taking proper precautions, you can learn to tackle them.